Methods and computer-readable medium to implement computing the propagation velocity of seismic waves

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to methods and computer-readable medium to implement computing the propagation velocity of seismic waves in the earth. The invention computes the true propagation velocity of seismic waves in the earth, which is a condition of obtaining an accurate image of subsurface geology that can be used to prospect for oil and gas deposits. In an embodiment, the method of computing the propagation velocity of seismic waves in earth, includes providing an estimate of the propagation velocity, generating a time shift gather using a depth migration at a plurality of locations of the earth, converting each of the time shift gathers to a semblance gather, transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather whose energy peaks represent a root-mean-square average of the propagation velocity along the forward and backward path between earth&#39;s surface and a point of the subsurface geology, and converting the energy peaks to the propagation velocity.

BACKGROUND

The invention relates to methods and computer-readable media to implement computation of the propagation velocity of seismic waves.

Knowledge of the propagation velocity of seismic waves is required to produce accurate images of underground geology to prospect for oil and gas with the reflection seismic method. The reflection seismic method deploys an array of sound sources (e.g., dynamite, air guns, and vibrating trucks) and receivers (e.g., seismometer or hydrophone) on or below earth's surface to construct an image of underground geology. To gather data to make the image, each sound source produces an explosion or vibration that generates seismic waves that propagate through earth, or initially through water then earth. Underground geologic interfaces, known as “reflectors,” will reflect some energy from the seismic waves back to the receivers. Each receiver will record a “trace” at that time. A multi-channel seismic recording system such as the StrataView manufactured by Geometrics Inc., San Jose, Calif. can be used to collect all of the recorded traces for a given shot. This collection is referred to as a “shot gather.”

To map the underground geology, the recorded time of the shot reflection events of each seismic trace will be mapped to the position at which the reflection occurred, using the propagation velocities of seismic waves, which vary with respect to spatial position. This mapping is known as “prestack depth migration.” Claerbout, Toward a unified theory of reflector mapping, Geophysics v. 36, p. 467 (1971), which is incorporated by reference herein, describes a method of computation known as “downward continuation,” which enables prestack migration. Downward continuation is a computation that mathematically moves the recorded seismic traces and simulated seismic source traces into the subsurface to achieve prestack depth migration.

Downward continuation requires an initial estimate of propagation velocity known as the “migration velocity.” These estimated propagation velocities can be obtained for instance by the method of stacking velocity analysis developed by Taner and Koehler, Velocity spectra—digital computer derivation applications of velocity functions, Geophysics 34, p. 859 (1969), which is incorporated by reference herein.

To form an image from the recorded data at a given depth, downward continuation migration computes the dot product of the downward continued recorded seismic trace and its corresponding downward continued source trace. When an energy peak on the recorded trace is time-coincident with an energy peak on the source trace an image can be formed. This method is known as the “zero time lag correlation imaging condition.” It is noted that the term “lag” is also referred to as “shift.” If the migration velocity matches the true propagation velocity, prestack migration will form an image of the reflector at the correct location. If the migration velocity differs from the true propagation velocity, prestack migration will form an image of the reflector at an incorrect location.

Sava and Fomel, Time-shift imaging condition in seismic migration, Geophysics, v. 71, p. 209 (2006), which is incorporated by reference, state that the zero time lag correlation imaging condition may be generalized to extract energy at a non-zero time lag and used to estimate the propagation velocities. When the migration velocity is incorrect, the energy peak on the downward continued source trace will not match the time of the energy peak on the downward continued recorded trace. By applying the correlation imaging condition at a number of time shifts, other than at zero lag, the amount of misfocusing in time can be computed and related to a velocity error. The generalized imaging condition is known as the “time-shift imaging condition.” For a given position on the recording surface and a given time shift, all the traces are summed. The collection of all these summed traces at that position for all the time shifts is known as “a time-shift gather.”

In regions with significant geologic complexity, velocity analysis using depth migration (MVA) is superior to methods which operate on prestack data. Migration in general, and depth migration in particular, simplify prestack data by correcting for the effects of offset, reflector dip, and propagation from source to receiver in a heterogeneous medium. When the migration velocity is incorrect, migration will incorrectly position the surface data in depth. Some MVA techniques attempt to flatten Kirchhoff common-offset depth migration gathers by measuring depth error as a function of offset and perturbing the migration velocity accordingly.

Kirchhoff offset gathers exhibit artifacts in complex examples, which are not seen in wave equation depth-migrated images, as described in Stolk and Symes, Kinematic artifacts in prestack depth migration, Geophysics v. 69, p. 562 (2004). Claerbout, Imaging the Earth's Interior (1985), which is incorporated by reference herein, devised the zero-time/zero-offset prestack imaging condition which forms the basis of most wave equation MVA techniques. Subsurface offset gathers can be converted to angle gathers by slant-stacking as described by Prucha et al, Angle-domain common image gathers by wave-equation migration, 69th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, p. 824 (1999) and by Sava and Fomel, Angle-domain common-image gathers by wavefield continuation methods, Geophysics v. 68, p. 1065 (2003), and have been used for MVA, as described by Clapp, Incorporating geologic information into reflection tomography, Geophysics v. 69, p. 533, (2004) and by Sava, Migration and velocity analysis by wavefield extrapolation, Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University (2004). However, the slant stack may itself introduce spurious artifacts. Shen et al., Differential semblance velocity analysis by wave-equation migration, SEG Expanded Abstracts, p. 2132 (2003) describe a velocity update method which uses misfocusing in subsurface offset directly.

Another class of MVA methods uses the other wave equation prestack focusing criterion—misfocusing in time—to quantify velocity errors. As described by MacKay and Abma, Imaging and velocity estimation with depth-focusing analysis, Geophysics v. 57, p. 1608 (1992), which is incorporated by reference herein, time-shift gathers can be constructed by phase-shifting source and receiver wave fields in shot record migration. While time-shift gathers can be converted to angle gathers, as described by Sava and Fomel, Time-shift imaging condition in seismic migration, Geophysics, v. 71, p. 209 (2006), which is incorporated by reference herein, MacKay and Abma measured the depth corresponding to best focusing and invoked a relationship attributed to Faye and Jeannot, Prestack migration velocities from focusing analysis, SEG Expanded Abstracts, p. 438 (1986), which is incorporated by reference herein, to relate the measured depth error to a velocity perturbation. The technique has small reflector dip and small offset assumptions. Audebert and Diet, Migrated focus panels: Focusing analysis reconciled with prestack depth migration, SEG Expanded Abstracts, p. 961 (1992), which is incorporated by reference herein, outline an approach to partially overcome these limitations.

In the 1990's, one of the inventors, Dr. Higginbotham, developed a method of computing the propagation velocity of seismic waves in earth. The method assumed a migration velocity, generated time shift gathers using a shot record downward continuation depth migration and the time-shift imaging condition, and converted the time shift gathers to semblance gathers. The energy peaks on the semblance gathers corresponded to the amount of misfocusing in time. The magnitude of the misfocusing in time was used to update the migration velocity. The method incorrectly assumed that a time shift corresponded to zero offset travel time. The method computed inaccurate values of the propagation velocity of seismic waves in the presence of reflector dip and source-receiver offset, and it was not understood how to increase its accuracy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention solves the problem of finding an accurate measure of the true propagation velocity of seismic waves in the earth, which is a condition for obtaining an accurate image of subsurface geology that can be used to prospect for oil and gas deposits.

The invention provides methods and computer-readable medium of computing the propagation velocity of seismic waves in earth, comprising: providing an estimate of the propagation velocity; generating a time shift gather using a depth migration at a plurality of locations of the earth; converting each of the time shift gathers to a semblance gather; transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather whose energy peaks represent a root-mean-square average of the propagation velocity along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and a point of the subsurface geology; and converting the energy peaks to the propagation velocity.

The invention also provides a method of computing a propagation velocity of seismic waves in earth, comprising: providing an estimate of the propagation velocity; generating a time shift gather using the depth migration at a plurality of locations of the earth; transforming each time shift gather into a velocity gather whose energy peaks represent a root-mean-square average of the propagation velocity along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and a point of the subsurface geology, and converting the energy peaks to the propagation velocity.

The invention relates to a velocity estimation technique which uses the time-shift imaging condition for wave equation prestack depth migration. The migration time-shift parameter is converted to a perturbation in RMS velocity, which can be converted to interval velocity. The invention can resolve velocity errors in the presence of subsurface complexity that would hamper velocity analysis with surface data. Moreover, it has no dip or offset limitations for constant velocity and weak dip limitations for varying velocity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer for implementing the methods of the invention.

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate downward continuation migration when the correct migration velocity is used.

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate downward continuation migration when an incorrect migration velocity is used.

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate construction of a time-shift gather when an incorrect migration velocity is used.

FIG. 5 illustrates a seismic survey geometry and a shot image aperture.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method of downward continuation shot record migration.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method of construction of a time-shift gather.

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate a method of flattening or retardation of a time-shift gather.

FIG. 9 illustrates counting the shots contributing to a time-shift gather.

FIG. 10 illustrates a method of semblance computation.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method of wave equation migration velocity focusing analysis.

FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate selecting by user input energy peaks on velocity gathers.

FIG. 13 illustrates automatically selecting of energy peaks on velocity gathers.

FIG. 14 illustrates a method of updating the migration velocity.

FIG. 15 illustrates a time-shift gather based on synthetic data.

FIGS. 16A-16C illustrate velocity gathers with varying amounts of velocity error.

FIGS. 17A-17C illustrate migration results with varying velocity errors.

FIGS. 18A-18C illustrate a comparison of velocity models used in a feasibility test.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following description includes the best mode of carrying out the invention. The detailed description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is determined by reference to the claims. Each part (or step) is assigned its own part (or step) number throughout the specification and drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a cluster of hosts that can execute the methods in software as described below. Each host is a computer that can communicate with data storage subsystems 11 and 26 (e.g., a disk array or solid state memory) and with each other. Hennessy and Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (2006), and Patterson and Hennessy, Computer organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface (2007) describe computer hardware and software, storage systems, caching, and networks and are incorporated by reference.

As shown in FIG. 1, a first host 18, which is representative of the second host 19 through Nth host 20, includes a motherboard with a CPU-memory bus 14 that communicates with dual processors 13 and 16. The processor used is not essential to the invention and could be any suitable processor such as the Intel Pentium processor. A processor could be any suitable general purpose processor running software, an ASIC dedicated to perform the operations described herein or a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Also, one could implement the invention using a single processor in each host or more than two processors to meet various performance requirements. The arrangement of the processors is not essential to the invention. Data is defined as including user data, instructions, and metadata. The processor reads and writes data to memory 15 and/or data storage subsystem 11 and 26. Each host includes a bus adapter 22 between the CPU-memory bus 14 and an interface bus 24.

A seismic survey may contain hundreds of thousands of shot gathers resulting in a data set greater than one terabyte. Our method of computing the propagation velocity (described below) can be implemented on one host having a processor, but preferably uses many hosts each with a plurality of processors to image the shot gathers in parallel. In an embodiment, the method is implemented on at least 20 hosts, each having four processors. In the embodiment, each processor on each slave host communicates with a processor on a master host with data flowing between the master and the slave hosts throughout the computation. Data used by our method is usually stored locally on the slave hosts. After the work on each slave host completes, its portion of the output is summed into a single file on the master host. The SeisPak® software owned by Chevron Corporation, San Ramon, Calif. and licensed to the applicants is a suitable software environment for implementing the method described below. SeisPak® uses the open source Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) software package distributed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn. to implement the parallel computations described above.

Each host runs an operating system such as Linux, UNIX, a Windows OS, or another suitable operating system. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems (2008) describes operating systems in detail and is hereby incorporated by reference. Bovet and Cesati, Understanding the Linux Kernel (2005), and Bach, Design of the Unix Operating System (1986) describe operating systems in detail and are incorporated by reference herein.

FIG. 1 shows that the first host 18 includes a CPU-memory bus 14 that communicates with the processors 13 and 16 and a memory 15 which is connected to memory cache 10. The first host 18 communicates through the network adapter 17 over a link 28 with a computer network 31 with other hosts. Similarly, the second host 19 communicates over link 29 with the computer network 31, and the Nth host 20 communicates over link 30 with the computer network 31. In sum, the hosts 18, 19 and 20 communicate with each other and with the computer network 31. The link 27, the link 29, the link 30, and the computer network 31 can be implemented using a suitable known bus, SAN, LAN, or WAN technology such as Fibre Channel, SCSI, InfiniBand, or Ethernet, and the technology implemented is not essential to the invention. See Kembel, The FibreChannel Consultant, A Comprehensive Introduction (1998), Kembel, The FibreChannel Consultant, Arbitrated Loop (1996-1997) The FibreChannel Consultant, Fibre Channel Switched Fabric (2001), Clark, Designing Storage Area Networks (2003), Clark, IP SANs: A Guide to iSCSI, iFCP, and FCIP Protocols for Storage Area Networks (2002) and Clark, Designing Storage Area Networks (1999), which are incorporated by reference herein.

FIGS. 2A-2C and FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate methods of applying downward continuation for prestack depth migration with the zero time lag correlation imaging condition. FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate the method when the migration velocity equals the true propagation velocity.

In FIG. 2A, dipping geologic interface 50 produces a seismic reflection which is recorded as a seismic trace (FIG. 2B) at the depth z=0, which can be on or below earth's surface. The voltage of the receiver plots the seismic energy as a function of time t. A simulated source trace 52 is also shown in FIG. 2B. The energy peak of the simulated source trace 52 will lie at t=0 when z=0. The source generating a seismic wave and the receiver which generates the voltage indicative of the wave's reflected energy records its travel time at two-dimensional surface coordinate vectors s=[sx, sy] and g=[gx, gy] as shown in FIG. 5. The simulated source trace 52 is assumed to lie at the position s. The vector connecting the source position s and the receiver position g, referred to as the “offset” vector, can be oriented at an arbitrary azimuth with respect to the (x, y) axis as shown in FIG. 5.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the simulated source trace 52 and the recorded trace 54 are downward continued in depth to some depth z=z_(a)>0, producing traces 56 and 58. The energy peak of the downward continued simulated source trace 56 is moved to a later time. The energy peak of the downward continued recorded trace 58 is moved to an earlier time. At the focusing depth z_(f) the energy peak of the downward continued simulated source trace 60 and the energy peak of the downward continued recorded trace 62 are coincident in time. Because the migration velocity corresponds to the true propagation velocity, the focusing depth, z_(f), is the same as the true reflector depth, z_(r).

FIG. 2C illustrates applying the zero time lag imaging condition 64 to create a depth image trace 66. To form an image at depth z=0, the value corresponding to the dot product of the traces 52 and 54 is placed on the depth image trace at depth z=0. The image at z=z_(a) is formed by applying the imaging condition 64 to the traces 56 and 58. The image at z=z_(r) is formed by applying the imaging condition 64 to the traces 60 and 62. Because the migration velocity equals the true propagation velocity, the energy peak of the image trace reaches a maximum at the true reflector depth z=z_(r).

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate the same method depicted in FIGS. 2A-2C, but in the situation where the migration velocity is faster than the true propagation velocity.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the migration velocity is too fast, which causes the focusing depth z_(f) to be greater than the true reflector depth z_(r).

FIG. 3B illustrates the same method depicted in FIG. 2B. The downward continuation of a simulated source trace 72 produces a trace 76 at z_(a) and a trace 80 at z_(r). The downward continuation of a recorded trace 74 produces a trace 78 at z_(a) and a trace 82 at z_(r). Because the migration velocity is too fast, the energy peaks of the trace 80 and trace 82 are not time-coincident but separated by time Δt.

FIG. 3C illustrates the same method depicted in FIG. 2C. The zero time lag correlation imaging condition 64 is applied at each depth. Because the migration velocity is too fast, the energy peak of the depth image trace 84 is deeper than the true reflection depth z_(r).

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate applying the time-shift imaging condition to the downward continued traces 80 and 82 (FIG. 4A) when the migration velocity is too slow.

As shown in FIG. 4B, an ensemble of shifted traces 90 is generated by applying opposing time shifts τ ranging from τ_(min) to τ_(max) to the trace pair 80 and 82 shown in FIG. 4A. The zero time lag correlation imaging condition 64 is applied to each of the shifted trace pairs. In this case, at τ>0 the energy peaks of the traces in the trace pairs are time coincident.

FIG. 4C shows a time-shift gather 92. The shaded row of the time-shift gather at z=z_(r) is filled by applying the time-shift imaging condition 64 to each trace pair in the ensemble of shifted traces 90 shown in FIG. 4B. The time-shift gather is filled for other depth levels generating a slanting seismic event in the (z, τ) plane for each reflector. For a reflector, the energy of the slanting seismic event will be largest at the focusing depth z_(f). Corresponding to the focusing depth z_(f) is a focusing time shift τ_(f). Because the migration velocity is incorrect, the focusing time shift τ_(f) is not zero.

The magnitude of the focusing time shift τ_(f) can be used in an embodiment to approximate the velocity error which caused the focusing time shift to deviate from zero. The estimated velocity error is then used to update the migration velocity to better approximate the propagation velocity.

FIG. 5 illustrates the geometry of a seismic survey and a shot record migration aperture. The seismic survey includes a collection of shot gathers. Each shot gather consists of a source (or shot). The ith shot is located at position vector [sx_(i), sy_(i)]. A collection of receivers records seismic reflections from each source. Three such receivers corresponding to the ith shot are shown at [gx_(i,1), gy_(i,1)], [gx_(i,2), gy_(i,2)], and [gx_(i,j), gy_(i,j)], where the index j represents the jth receiver belonging to the ith shot. A polygon 132 contains all the receivers corresponding to the ith shot. Although shown as a rectangle, the polygon is generally irregular. A polygon 128 contains all the sources and receivers. The polygon is typically irregular in shape due to constraints such as oilfield equipment and irregularities in land ownership. The shot record migration produces an independent seismic image for each shot gather.

To reduce computational time, a shot image aperture 130 can be defined for each shot gather. The shot image aperture 130 is usually a rectangle for simple implementation. Whatever its geometric shape, the shot image aperture 130 should contain the source and all receivers in the shot gather, and enough “padding” on the edges to image seismic energy reflecting from dipping reflectors. The master image extent 126 contains all shot image apertures and is generally rectangular for simple implementation.

The location of a time-shift gather in general is denoted by (x_(n), y_(n)). Three such locations are shown at (x₁, y₁), (x₂, y₂), and (x_(n), y_(n)). Two of the three time-shift gather locations are contained in the shot image aperture 130 of the ith shot. Energy from the ith shot image will only contribute to time-shift gather locations contained in the shot image aperture 130. The spacing density and regularity of the time-shift gathers is flexible but can be specified on a regular grid for simplicity.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method of shot record migration to generate time-shift gathers as implemented in software executable by the host. A discrete Fourier transform is applied to the time axis of every trace in the collection of input shot gathers. The shot record migration method includes three nested loops: over all frequencies, over all shot gathers, and over all depths. It is known that summation of the frequency components of a Fourier-transformed signal is equivalent to extraction of the original signal at zero time. The zero lag correlation imaging condition is applied in this manner for efficient computation. Each shot gather is imaged independently with a pre-defined aperture then inserted and summed into the master image as shown in FIG. 5. For each frequency and each shot, the image is formed by downward continuation from the minimum depth to the maximum depth.

As shown in FIG. 6, at step 138 the user inputs the parameters for the frequency axis, the output image's depth axis, and the number of shot gathers N_(shots) in the host. It is simplest to parameterize the axes by the minimum value, the spacing between samples, the maximum value, and an integer index. The minimum frequency is ω_(min), the spacing between adjacent frequencies is Δω, and the maximum frequency is ω_(max). Similarly, the minimum depth is z_(min), the spacing between adjacent depths is Δz, and the maximum depth is z_(max). Implementations using irregular sampling in depth may yield a significant performance advantage, because seismic velocities generally increase with depth and high frequencies in the data are attenuated allowing less frequent sampling as the seismic waves propagate into the earth.

At step 140, the method initializes the frequency loop index j to 0. At step 142 the method computes the current frequency by the linear relation ω=j*Δω+ω_(min). At step 144, the method initializes the shot gather index i to 0. At step 146, the method reads the location of the ith source, (sx_(i), sy_(i)) from the trace header of any trace in the current shot gather. Those skilled in the art are familiar with the concept of trace headers. The SEG-Y format is one example of a data format which uses trace headers. At step 146, the method also defines the spatial extent of the shot image aperture 130 relative to (sx_(i), sy_(i)). At step 148, the method reads a Fourier-transformed synthetic source function for the current frequency. Because the source function depends on three variables, extraction of one frequency value is a “frequency slice” from the three-dimensional source function cube. Although this synthetic source function may have finite spatial extent, it can be implemented as a point source at (sx_(i), sy_(i)), and is defined either as a “spike” at time=0 or as a more complicated function in time, which reproduces the behavior of the actual source function of the shot. At step 152, the method initializes the source wave field S, which is a two-dimensional array corresponding to the shot image aperture, by interpolating the synthetic source function into the appropriate location on S. At step 150, the method reads a frequency slice from the current Fourier-transformed shot gather. At step 154, the method initializes the receiver wave field R as it did with the source wave field at step 152 by interpolating the shot gather frequency slice read at step 150 into the appropriate location. The receiver wave field R is also a two-dimensional array with the same size as source wave field S. The initialization of receiver wave field R and source wave field S is assumed to happen at depth z=0, where the sources and receivers are assumed to be located. Generalization of the algorithm to a non-flat acquisition datum is possible, as described in Higginbotham, Directional depth migration, Geophysics, v. 50, p. 1784 (1985), which is incorporated by reference herein.

At step 156, the method executes a loop over depth that begins by initializing the depth index k to 0. At step 158, the method computes the kth depth by the linear relation z=k*Δz+z_(min). At steps 160 and 162, the method downward continues the source wave field S and the receiver wave field R to the next depth. For wave-equation migration, the method can execute the downward continuation by a factorization of the acoustic wave equation into a one-way wave equation, which propagates waves only down (or up) in depth as described in Claerbout, Toward a unified theory of reflector mapping, Geophysics v. 36, p. 467 (1971), which is incorporated by reference. This allows recursive propagation of energy from the surface (z=0) into the sub-surface (z>0).

Biondi, 3D Seismic Imaging (2006), which is incorporated by reference, gives an overview of the implementations of the one-way wave equation. In an embodiment, the Phase Shift Plus Interpolation method described in Gazdag and Sguazzero, Migration of seismic data by phase-shift plus interpolation, Geophysics, v. 49, p. 124 (1984), which is incorporated by reference, is used to implement the one-way wave equation.

The method of FIG. 6 will populate the appropriate row of all time-shift gathers (See FIG. 4) at each depth by applying the time-shift imaging condition (See FIG. 7) to the source wave field S and the receiver wave field R at step 164. After application of the time-shift imaging condition, the method increments the depth index at step 166. If the maximum depth z_(max) was exceeded at step 168, the method proceeds to the next shot gather. If not, the method returns to process the next depth at step 158. The method increments the shot gather index at step 170. If the final shot has been migrated, then at step 172, the method continues to the next frequency. Otherwise, the method returns to process the next shot gather at step 146. The method increments the frequency index at step 174. If the maximum frequency, ω_(max) has been migrated, then at step 176, the method exits to write a file containing the time-shift gathers and the amplitude-squared time shift gathers at step 178. If not, the method returns to process the next frequency at step 142.

FIG. 7 illustrates computation of a collection of time-shift gathers for a single frequency, ω, a single shot gather located at (sx_(i), sy_(i)), and a single depth, z. The method time shifts the source wave field S and receiver wave field R from the shot record migration and correlates them for an ensemble of time shifts. For each time shift, the method extracts the time shifted trace at each time shift location within the current shot image aperture. The method enters at step 164 from the method of FIG. 6. At step 180, the method inputs the source wave field S and the receiver wave field R. As in FIG. 4, the method applies the time-shift imaging condition for a plurality of time shifts. At step 181, the method inputs the axis parameters for the time shift variable τ. It is simplest to parameterize each time shift in terms of the minimum time shift τ_(min), the spacing between adjacent time shifts Δτ, and the maximum time shift τ_(max). In an alternative embodiment, the method can use irregularly-spaced time shifts. At step 182, the method initializes the time-shift index m to 0. At step 183, the method computes the current time shift τ by the linear relation τ=m*Δτ+τ_(min). At step 184, the method applies the time shift in the frequency domain via multiplication with the complex exponential exp(−iωτ) to the down-going source wave field S and similarly applies time shift exp(iωτ) to the up-going receiver wave field R. The method then multiplies the time shifted receiver wave field with the complex conjugate of the time shifted source wave field point-wise at each (x, y) location. The method stores the result in a temporary array A. At step 185, the method initializes the time-shift gather location index n to 0. At step 186, the method reads the current time-shift gather location (x_(n), y_(n)). The user inputs a list of time-shift gather locations and shot image aperture dimensions at run-time. At step 187, if (x_(n), y_(n)) lies inside the current shot image aperture (See FIG. 5), the method adds the local value of the temporary array A at (x_(n), y_(n)) in the appropriate row of the time-shift gather at step 188, and adds the square of the local value of the temporary array A at (x_(n), y_(n)) in the appropriate row of the amplitude-squared time-shift gather at step 189. At step 190, the method increments the time-shift gather index. If (x_(n), y_(n)) does not lie inside the current shot image aperture, the method proceeds to step 190 without executing steps 188 and 189. If, at step 192, the method determines that the time-shift gather index exceeds the last time-shift gather index, the method proceeds to the next time shift value. Otherwise, the method returns to step 186 to process the next time-shift gather. At step 194, the method increments the time-shift index. If the method determines that the current time shift τ exceeds the maximum time-shift index τ_(max) at step 196 the method continues to step 198 at which point it returns at step 166 to the shot record migration in FIG. 6. If not, the method returns to step 183 to process the next time-shift value.

From FIG. 4, it can be seen that on a time-shift gather, the image is best focused at some τ_(f), which may or may not be equal to zero. In an embodiment, the invention relates τ_(f) to a change in velocity. Adding this change in velocity to the migration velocity better approximates the propagation velocity which will produce more accurate images of the earth's geology. To make the focusing information on a time-shift gather more readily understood, the method converts the time-shift gathers and amplitude-squared time-shift gathers to semblance gathers.

FIGS. 8A-8C illustrate an optional and intermediate step in computing semblance gathers, referred to as “retardation” or flattening. After retardation, the slanting reflection events on a time-shift gather and amplitude-squared time-shift gather are approximately flat as a function of time shift τ.

In FIG. 8A at step 202, the method initializes the time-shift gather index n to 0. At step 204, the method reads the current time-shift gather location (x_(n), y_(n)) from the trace header of a time-shift gather file. At step 206, the method reads a single trace, V_(m)(z), from the migration velocity cube at location (x_(n), y_(n)). At step 208, the method reads the current time-shift gather. At step 210, the method reads the current amplitude-squared time-shift gather. Using the migration velocity, the method converts the depth axis of the current time-shift gather and amplitude-squared time-shift gather to time at steps 212 and 214, respectively. For each trace in the current time-shift gather, the method applies a vertical shift of magnitude τ at step 216. The method also applies a vertical shift of magnitude τ to the current amplitude-squared time-shift gather at step 218. To a first order, the method flattens each event on the time-shift gather with respect to τ about τ=0. At step 220, the current retarded time-shift gather is written. At step 222, the current retarded amplitude-squared time-shift gather is written. At step 224 the time-shift gather index n is incremented. If, at step 226, the time-shift gather index exceeds the number of time-shift gathers, then the method exits at step 227. If not, the method returns to step 204 to read the next time-shift gather.

FIGS. 8B and 8C illustrate the flattening or retardation step. FIG. 8B shows a time-shift gather 228 computed when the migration velocity was faster than the propagation velocity (same as in FIG. 4). FIG. 8C shows the result of converting the depth, z, axis of time-shift gather 228 to time, t, and flattening of the slanting seismic event about τ=0, to form retarded time-shift gather 229.

The number of shot record images that contribute to a time-shift gather location can be used to compute the semblance as shown in FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 5, each shot gather image has a finite aperture which may not contain every time-shift gather location. At step 230, the method inputs the total number of shot gathers, N_(shots), and parameters describing the size of the shot image aperture. At step 232, the method initializes the source index i to 0. At step 234, the method reads the ith source location (sx_(i), sy_(i)) from the trace header of any trace in the current shot gather. At step 236, the method defines the shot image aperture. At step 238, the method initializes the time-shift gather index n. At step 240, the method reads the nth time-shift gather location (x_(n), y_(n)) from the trace header of any trace in the current time-shift gather. At step 242, the method arrives at a decision block: if (x_(n), y_(n)) is inside the shot image aperture corresponding to the source location (sx_(i), sy_(i)), then the method increments the count of sources contributing to the current time-shift gather and writes that count in the trace header of the time-shift gather file at step 244. If (x_(n), y_(n)) is not inside the image aperture, then the method skips step 244 and increments the time-shift gather index at step 246. If the time-shift gather index is beyond the maximum time-shift gather index, then at step 248, the method processes the next shot gather at step 250. If not, the method processes the next time-shift gather at step 240. The method next increments the shot gather index at step 250. If, at step 252, the shot gather index is beyond the maximum number of shot gathers N_(shots), the method terminates at step 254. If not, the method returns to step 234 to process the next shot gather.

The semblance computation is illustrated in FIG. 10. At step 262, the method initializes the time-shift gather index n to 0. At step 264, the method begins to process the nth semblance gather. At steps 266 and 268, respectively, the method reads the current retarded time shift gather and retarded amplitude-squared time-shift gather and stores the two-dimensional arrays, T_(n) and Q_(n). At step 270, the method reads the number, N, of shot gather images contributing to the current time-shift gather (See FIG. 9) from the trace header. At step 272, the method computes the semblance gather using the current time-shift gather, the amplitude-squared time-shift gather, and the source count. Each sample of the two-dimensional semblance gather, S_(n) (t, τ) is filled according to the following relation:

$\begin{matrix} {{{S_{n}\left( {t,\tau} \right)} = \frac{{T_{n}\left( {t,\tau} \right)}^{2}}{N \cdot {Q_{n}\left( {t,\tau} \right)}}},} & (1) \end{matrix}$

where T_(n)(t, τ) corresponds to a sample from the current retarded time-shift gather and Q_(n)(t, τ) corresponds to a sample from the current retarded amplitude-squared time-shift gather. The computed semblance gather S_(n) is everywhere positive with a maximum at the point of best focusing, (t_(f), τ_(f)).

A semblance gather 341 is shown in FIG. 12C. The energy peak 342 has a maximum at the same (t, τ) as the corresponding retarded time-shift gather 229 as shown in FIG. 8C.

At step 274 in FIG. 10, the method increments the time-shift gather index. If, at step 276, the time-shift gather index is greater than the total number of time-shift gathers, the method writes a file of semblance gathers at step 278. If not, the method computes the next semblance gather at step 264. The method exits at step 280.

The semblance computation of equation (1) represents only one embodiment for facilitating the interpretation of energy peaks on the time-shift gathers. In alternative embodiments, other forms of semblance may be computed. For example, MacKay and Abma, Imaging and velocity estimation with depth-focusing analysis, Geophysics, v. 57, p. 1608 (1992), which is incorporated by reference, describe using the envelope function, which may be used in our invention to compute other forms of coherence rather than semblance. The method can utilize the energy peaks directly on time-shift gathers without using any coherence calculation. Additionally, the method can compute the semblance in depth first then convert to time and apply the retardation to the semblance. The order in which this is done is not essential to the invention. It is also possible for the method to perform the optional retardation step after applying a semblance measure.

In an embodiment, the invention transforms a time-shift parameter, τ to a change in velocity. The physical basis of this transformation is the relation of the time shift parameter as shown in FIG. 3B. Δt is the amount of time separating the energy peaks on a downward continued data trace and downward continued simulated source trace at depth z_(r). Δt represents the travel time of a reflection event from source position s_(r) to the focusing depth z_(f) and back to the receiver position g_(r). When the migration velocity is correct, Δt is zero and the change in velocity will be zero.

Levin, Apparent velocity from dipping interface reflections, Geophysics 36, p. 510 (1971), which is incorporated by reference herein, gives an equation (“Levin's equation”) that expresses the travel time of a seismic event from a dipping reflector in terms of the “zero-offset travel time” t₀, velocity c, dip angle θ, and “half offset” h:

c ² t ² =c ² t ₀ ²+4h ² cos² θ.   (2)

An embodiment of the invention uses Levin's equation (2) as a starting point in the derivation of equations (14), (17), and (18), which are used to implement the method. That derivation follows below.

The present invention understands that in the course of shot record migration the shot gather and the simulated source trace are both downward continued to some depth Z using the migration velocity. In an embodiment, the method interprets the time t as the travel time through a “replacement overburden” having a velocity with characteristics that allow use of Levin's equation from earth's surface down to depth Z. The method relates depth Z to t₀ exactly for the constant velocity case even for dipping events. When the velocity is represented as a RMS velocity then the relation of Z to t₀ is exact for flat events and approximate for dipping events. Since the half offset h, the zero offset time t₀, and even the exact velocity, are not easily available during shot record downward continuation, the method eliminates these variables from equation (2) in favor of known quantities such as the migration velocity and travel time t.

Define Z as the vertical depth to the reflection point when h=0. Then Levin's equation (2) can be rewritten in terms of Z:

$\begin{matrix} {{c^{2}t^{2}} = {\frac{4Z^{2}}{\cos^{2}\theta} + {4h^{2}\cos^{2}{\theta.}}}} & (3) \end{matrix}$

The method holds t, θ, and h constant and perturbs the velocity in equation (3), leading to a perturbed depth. The method defines the perturbed velocity v(t) and the perturbed depth Z′ and rewrite equation (3):

$\begin{matrix} {{{v(t)}^{2}t^{2}} = {\frac{4Z^{\prime 2}}{\cos^{2}\theta} + {4h^{2}\cos^{2}{\theta.}}}} & (4) \end{matrix}$

The method subtracts equation (3) from (4) to derive a relationship between a perturbation in velocity Δv(t) and a perturbation in depth Δz:

$\begin{matrix} {{{\Delta \; {v(t)}} = {\frac{\overset{\_}{Z}}{\overset{\_}{v}}\frac{4\; \Delta \; z}{t^{2}\cos^{2}\theta}}},{where}} & (5) \\ {{{\Delta \; {v(t)}} \equiv {{v(t)} - c}};{{\Delta \; Z} \equiv {Z^{\prime} - Z}};{\frac{\overset{\_}{Z}}{\overset{\_}{v}} = {\frac{Z + {\Delta \; {Z/2}}}{c + {\Delta \; {{v(t)}/2}}}.}}} & (6) \end{matrix}$

The method evaluates equation (3) at h=0, then relates ΔZ to a perturbation in zero offset travel time, Δt₀:

$\begin{matrix} {{\Delta \; Z} = {\Delta \; t_{0}\frac{c}{2}\cos \; {\theta.}}} & (7) \end{matrix}$

The method also manipulates equation (2) to relate perturbations in zero offset travel time Δt₀, to perturbations in non-zero offset travel time Δt. The method perturbs t₀ and t and algebraically rearranges equation (2) to obtain:

$\begin{matrix} {{2t\; \Delta \; {t\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; t}{2t}} \right)}} = {2t_{0}\Delta \; {{t_{0}\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; t_{0}}{2t_{0}}} \right)}.}}} & (8) \end{matrix}$

Starting with equation (4), the method inserts the relation for average depth-to-velocity ratio from equation (6) and then uses equation (7) to replace the ΔZ terms with Δt₀ terms to obtain:

$\begin{matrix} {{\Delta \; {v(t)}} = {\frac{{ct}_{0}\Delta \; t_{0}}{t^{2}}\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; t_{0}}{2t_{0}}} \right){\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2c}} \right)^{- 1}.}}} & (9) \end{matrix}$

The method recognizes a term that looks like the right-hand side of equation (8) in equation (9), and eliminates t₀ from equation (9) to obtain:

$\begin{matrix} {{\Delta \; {v(t)}} = {\frac{c\; \Delta \; t}{t}\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; t}{2t}} \right){\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2c}} \right)^{- 1}.}}} & (10) \end{matrix}$

The method further algebraically manipulates the last component of equation (10) to obtain:

$\begin{matrix} {\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2c}} \right)^{- 1} = {\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right){\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2{v(t)}}} \right)^{- 1}.}}} & (11) \end{matrix}$

The method also uses the fact that:

$\begin{matrix} {c = {{v(t)}{\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right).}}} & (12) \end{matrix}$

The method uses relations (11) and (12), plus algebraic manipulations to modify equation (10) into the following relationship between Δt and change in RMS velocity, Δv(t):

$\begin{matrix} {{\frac{\Delta \; t}{t} = {{- 1} + \sqrt{1 + \frac{2\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2\; {v(t)}}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)^{2}}}}},} & (13) \end{matrix}$

Finally, the method associates Δt in equation (13) with the migration time shift parameter τ to obtain a relationship between Δv(t) and τ:

$\begin{matrix} {{\frac{\tau}{t} = {{- 1} + \sqrt{1 + \frac{2\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2\; {v(t)}}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)^{2}}}}},} & (14) \end{matrix}$

A feature of the invention is the independence of equation (14) from reflector dip and offset. Further, equation (14) is exact in the case of constant velocity and arbitrary reflector dip, and also exact in the case of depth variable velocity and flat reflectors.

The method simplifies equation (14) by defining relative velocity and time shifts α and β:

$\begin{matrix} {{{\alpha \equiv \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}};}{\beta \equiv {\frac{\tau}{t}.}}} & (15) \end{matrix}$

The method uses relations (15) to recast equation (14) as a quadratic equation in α and β. After common algebraic rearrangements of equation (15), the method obtains:

$\begin{matrix} {{\frac{\beta^{2}}{2} + \beta - \frac{\alpha \left( {1 - \frac{\alpha}{2}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \alpha} \right)^{2}}} = 0.} & (16) \end{matrix}$

The method solves quadratic equation (16), expands the square root to three terms, and keeps only terms of order α², to obtain an approximation to equation (14):

$\begin{matrix} {\frac{\tau}{t} = {\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}{\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right).}}} & (17) \end{matrix}$

Equation (17) is quite accurate. For a relative velocity perturbation of 10% (α=0.1), the correct result is β=0.1111 . . . , while equation (17) yields a result of β=0.11, implying an error of only 0.1%.

Another, less accurate, approximation to equation (14) is applicable when Δv(t)/v(t)<<1:

$\begin{matrix} {\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)} \approx {\frac{\tau}{t}.}} & (18) \end{matrix}$

The analysis above can be repeated for depth-variable velocity. The method assumes that the reflector depth is controlled by the average velocity and repeats the analysis above, yielding a result similar to equations (14), (17), and (18), except that v(t) is replaced with RMS velocity.

The computer implemented methods of equations (14), (17), and (18) are shown in FIG. 11. At step 290, the method inputs the axis parameters for the Δv axis: the minimum value, Δv_(min), the increment between adjacent samples, Δ(Δv), and the maximum value, Δv_(max). At step 292, the method initializes the semblance gather index n. At step 294, the method reads the nth semblance gather location, (x_(n), y_(n)) from the trace header of any trace in the semblance gather. At step 295, the method reads the current semblance gather into a two-dimensional array, S_(n)(t, τ). At step 296, the method reads the trace of the migration velocity at (x_(n), y_(n)) into a one dimensional array. At step 298, the method converts the depth axis of the velocity to time. At step 300, the method permits the user to select one of the migration velocity focusing analysis (MVFA) equations, that is equation (14), (17), or (18). The MVFA transformation represents a time-dependent stretch of the τ axis of a semblance gather to Δv.

The method loops over the output domain Δv. At step 302, the method initializes the velocity perturbation index j to 0. At step 304, the method computes the current Δv by the linear equation Δv=j*Δ(Δv)+Δv_(min). At step 306, the selected MVFA equation computes the value of τ corresponding to the current value of Δv. At step 308, the method computes the two grid points, τ₀ and τ₁, on the τ-axis bracketing the value of τ. The method computes the linear interpolation weights, w₀ and w₁ according to the relations w₀=(τ₁−τ)/Δτ and w₁=1−w₀, where Δτ is the distance between adjacent τ grid points on S_(n)(t, τ). For each time t the method averages the values of the semblance gather at the two bracketing grid points to produce one sample of the velocity gather M_(n)(t, v_(m)(t)+Δv) at step 309. Although the MVFA mapping of equations (14), (17), or (18) is between τ and Δv, in the mapping shown at step 309, τ is mapped to v+Δv. The method may also define the velocity gather only in terms of Δv. At step 310, the method increments the velocity perturbation index. If, at step 312, the current Δv value is equal to Δv_(max), the method proceeds to step 314. If not, the method returns to process the next velocity perturbation at step 304. At step 314, the method writes the recently computed velocity gather. At step 316, the method increments the semblance gather index. If the semblance gather index is beyond the last semblance gather index at step 318, the method terminates at step 320. If not, method returns to step 294 to compute the next velocity gather.

After the method converts a semblance gather to a velocity gather as described by FIG. 11, the method maps a given energy peak on the semblance gather, (t_(f), τ_(f)) to an energy peak on the velocity gather (t_(f), v_(rms)+Δv_(rms)). FIG. 12C shows an energy peak 342 on a semblance gather 341. The method maps that energy peak to a corresponding energy peak 348 on the velocity gather 344 as shown in FIG. 12D. The migration velocity 346, V_(m)(t) is plotted as a thick dotted line. If, as in FIG. 12D, the migration velocity is too slow, the energy peak on the velocity gather 344 indicates that a higher velocity is needed to approximate the propagation velocity. The method defines the output velocity gather in terms of total updated velocity (v_(rms)+Δv_(rms)). The method may also define the velocity gather in terms of velocity change Δv_(rms) alone.

FIGS. 12-14 illustrate a method to update the migration velocity to approximate the true propagation velocity. FIG. 12A illustrates that the host can display the results to human who can visually pick the energy peaks of the velocity gathers. At step 330, the velocity gather file is input to an application which allows a user to view a velocity gather, pick individual points in (t, v_(rms)) space and save the points to a file. Many suitable software applications exist such as the GSEGYView viewer, which is available and can be downloaded from SourceForge at www.sourceforge.net. The user can loop over the desired velocity gathers as described earlier. Starting with the first velocity gather at step 332, the method displays the current velocity gather at step 334. At step 336, the user selects energy maxima on the current velocity gather that correspond to the subsurface reflection events. If the user has reached the last velocity gather at step 338, then at step 339, the user's selection of (t, v_(rms)) is written to a file and the method terminates at step 340.

FIGS. 12B, 12C, and 12D illustrate the processing sequence from retardation of time-shift gathers to semblance gathers to picking velocities on velocity gathers. The retarded time-shift gather 229 shown in FIG. 12B is the same as retarded time-shift gather 229 shown in FIG. 8C. The energy peak 342 on the corresponding semblance gather 341 is shown in FIG. 12C. FIG. 12D shows how energy peak 342 on FIG. 12C is mapped to an energy peak 348 on the velocity gather 344. The migration velocity 346, V_(m)(t), is plotted as a thick dotted line. If the migration velocity is too slow, the energy peak 348 on the velocity gather 344 indicates that a velocity speedup is needed to better approximate the true propagation velocity. The bold “x” symbol 349 represents a single (t, v_(rms)) selection that can be made by a human interpreter as described in FIG. 12A or by a computer as described below in FIG. 13. The collection of all (t, v_(rms)) picks on all velocity gathers can be used to update the migration velocity.

FIG. 13 illustrates a computer implemented method that selects the energy peaks on velocity gathers. At step 350, the method inputs the axis parameters for the velocity axis: the minimum value v_(min), the increment between adjacent samples Δv, and the maximum value v_(max). The velocity gather's horizontal axis is parameterized in terms of velocity and not the velocity perturbation. Also at step 350, the method inputs the axis parameters for the time axis, the minimum value t_(min), the increment between adjacent samples Δt, and the maximum value t_(max). At step 352, the method initializes the velocity gather index n to 0. At step 354, the method reads the current velocity gather into a two-dimensional array, the axes of which are time and velocity. At step 356, the method initializes the time index k to 0. At step 358, the method computes the current time t by the linear equation t=k*Δt+t_(min). At step 360, the method computes the velocity index m, corresponding to the maximum value of the row of the velocity gather at the current time index. At step 362, the method computes the RMS velocity, v_(rms), corresponding to the velocity index m by the linear equation v_(rms)=m*Δv+v_(min). At step 364, the method stores the current (t, v_(rms)) value corresponding to the current energy peak. At step 366, the method increments the time index. If the time corresponding to the incremented time index exceeds t_(max) at step 368, the method proceeds to step 370. If not, the method returns to step 358 to process the next time value. At step 370, the method increments the velocity gather index. If, at step 372, the velocity gather index exceeds the maximum velocity gather index, the method proceeds to step 374. If not, the method returns to step 354 to process the next velocity gather. At step 374, the method writes the stored collection of (t, v_(rms)) values. At step 376, the method exits.

FIG. 14 illustrates how the energy peaks selected by the methods of FIG. 12 or FIG. 13 can be used to update the migration velocity. At step 380, the method inputs the energy peaks from either FIG. 12 or FIG. 13. At step 382, the method initializes the velocity gather index n. At step 384, the method updates the migration velocity at the current velocity gather location. At step 386, the method uses the (t, v_(rms)) selected at the current velocity gather location to derive an interval velocity, v_(mig)(t), as a function of depth by solving the Dix equation with feasibility constraints (i.e., greater than a realistic minimum velocity and less than a realistic maximum velocity) on the value of the velocity. The Dix equation is described in C. H. Dix, Seismic velocities from surface measurements, Geophysics, v. 20, p. 68 (1955), which is incorporated by reference herein. At step 388, the method increments the velocity gather index. If the method determines the last velocity gather index has been exceeded at step 390, the method proceeds to step 392. If not, the method returns to process the next velocity gather at step 384. After the velocity gather locations have been processed, the method interpolates the collection of sparsely sampled interval velocity functions, v_(mig)(t), at step 392 to form a fully sampled volume of updated migration velocities. At step 394, the method applies constraints to enforce mathematical properties (i.e., continuity of the velocity and/or the first derivative) across the interpreted geologic interfaces. At step 396, the method applies polynomial smoothing to smooth the velocity within each geologic layer defined by the user. At step 398, the method exits. It should be noted that steps 386, 392, 394, and 396 may be accomplished using the SeisPak software system, described earlier.

As noted above, velocity analysis using the invention begins with time-shift gathers, computed with a wave equation shot record depth migration algorithm. FIG. 15 illustrates an actual time-shift gather 400 taken from a synthetic dataset migrated with an incorrect velocity. The velocity was correct above a depth of 2,500 m. For the deeper reflectors, the energy peaks are shifted away from τ=0 by as much as −0.15 second.

FIGS. 16-18 illustrate application of the invention to a complex 2D synthetic dataset designed to mimic geologic structures such as those found in the Belridge Field, Calif., USA. The synthetic example includes 200 m of topographic relief, a weathering layer of variable thickness, significant lateral velocity variation, and dips to 75 degrees. Shot gathers were simulated over a 10 km profile, using a pseudo-spectral acoustic wave equation solver, with frequencies up to 45 Hz. Density contrasts produce most of the reflections. After building an initial velocity model, two iterations of the method were applied to test the efficacy of the method.

FIGS. 16A-16C show velocity gathers computed using the synthetic land dataset. The thick dotted lines show the RMS migration velocity as a function of time. In an embodiment, the method updates the migration velocity by picking the velocity peaks and converting to an interval velocity using Dix equation, as shown in FIG. 14. The dark semblance peaks represent the RMS velocity implied by the method. The velocity gather 410 shown in FIG. 16A was computed using the initial migration velocity 412. The semblance peaks do not overlay the migration velocity, implying that the migration velocity should be slowed down or sped up. The velocity gather 414 shown in FIG. 16B was computed using the migration velocity 416 estimated after two iterations of the method, and it can be seen that the semblance panels overlay the migration velocity more accurately than those shown in FIG. 16A, implying that the migration velocity is closer to the true propagation velocity. The velocity gather 418 shown in FIG. 16C was computed using the true propagation velocity 420. Comparing FIG. 16B to FIG. 16C, it is apparent that by applying two iterations of the method, the propagation velocity has been accurately estimated.

FIGS. 17A-17C show subsets of the shot record migration images corresponding to the initial migration velocity, the migration velocity after two iterations of the method, and the true propagation velocity. As shown in FIG. 17A, the image 430 obtained by migrating with the initial migration velocity has poor focusing of the steep dips on the left side of the anticline. As shown in FIG. 17B, after two iterations of the method, both the fault on the right side of the image 432 and the steep dips on the left side of the image are well-imaged, as are the steep dips. As shown in FIG. 17C, the image 434 obtained by migrating with the true propagation velocity matches the image 432 obtained by migrating with the velocity estimated by the method. Some depth errors remain, mostly due to shallow low velocity pods that were not fully inverted for as shown in FIG. 18. However, the focusing and positioning of most events in image 432 shown on FIG. 17B confirms that the velocity obtained by applying two iterations of the method accurately approximates the true propagation velocity.

FIGS. 18A-18C show the initial migration velocity, the migration velocity after two iterations of the method, and the true propagation velocity. As shown in FIG. 18A, initial migration velocity 440 is simply a single v(z) function “hung” from the base of the weathering layer. As shown in FIG. 18B, after two iterations of the method, migration velocity 442 contains considerably more structure than the initial migration velocity. FIG. 18C shows the true propagation velocity 444. The estimated velocity 442 is smoother than the true velocity 444. Also, several low velocity “pods” were not reproduced by the method. This is related to the velocity inversion scheme and parameterization of the model, rather than limitation of the invention. When justified by prior information such as well logs or geologic constraints, discontinuous velocity models can be estimated. Still, comparing the migration velocity 442 to the initial velocity 440 and the true velocity 444, it is apparent that two iterations of the method have reconstructed the large velocity structures, which is a key element to achieve accurate event positioning after migration.

Our invention to compute the propagation velocity can be employed for seismic imaging. The invention outputs a volume (i.e., x-y-z values) of propagation velocity that can be input to an imaging method that takes in raw seismic data that has little resemblance to earth's geological layers and transforms this data into an image displayed on the host that contains clearly identifiable geological interfaces below the surface of the earth. The method also improves the fidelity of the reflection amplitude with respect to angle of incidence on the reflector. 

1. A computer implemented method of determining a propagation velocity of seismic waves in earth, comprising: a processor; a memory holding program instructions executable by the processor to implement: inputting an estimate of the propagation velocity; generating a time shift gather using a depth migration at a plurality of locations of the earth; converting each of the time shift gathers to a semblance gather; transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather whose energy peaks represent a root-mean-square average of the propagation velocity along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and a point of the subsurface geology; and converting the energy peaks to the propagation velocity; and storing the propagation velocity.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein converting each of the time shift gathers to a semblance gather includes: (a) computing an amplitude squared time shift gather, and (b) counting the shot images contributing to each time shift gather.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather includes associating a migration time-shift parameter, τ, with a residual travel time from the depth migration using the estimate of the propagation velocity.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to a root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and the point of the subsurface geology.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), by the following formula: $\frac{\tau}{t} = {{- 1} + \sqrt{1 + \frac{2\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2\; {v(t)}}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)^{2}}}}$
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), by the following formula: $\frac{\tau}{t} \approx {\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)}$
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), by the following formula: $\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)} \approx \frac{\tau}{t}$
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather includes interpolating between the migration time-shift parameter, τ, and the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t).
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks on the velocity gather.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising updating the propagation velocity, using the selected energy maxima.
 11. The method of claim 5, wherein transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather includes interpolating between the migration time-shift parameter, τ, and the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), plus the estimate of the propagation velocity.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks on the velocity gather.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising updating the propagation velocity, using the selected energy maxima.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks is performed by a computer.
 15. A computer implemented method of determining a propagation velocity of seismic waves in earth, comprising: providing an estimate of the propagation velocity; generating a time shift gather using the depth migration at a plurality of locations of the earth; transforming each time shift gather into a velocity gather whose energy peaks represent a root-mean-square average of the propagation velocity along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and a point of the subsurface geology; converting the energy peaks to the propagation velocity; and storing the propagation velocity.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of transforming each time shift gather into a velocity gather includes associating a migration time-shift parameter, τ, with a residual travel time from the depth migration using the estimate of the propagation velocity.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the time shift gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t).
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), by the following formula: $\frac{\tau}{t} = {{- 1} + \sqrt{1 + \frac{2\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2\; {v(t)}}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)^{2}}}}$
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), by the following formula: $\frac{\tau}{t} \approx {\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)}$
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), by the following formula: $\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)} \approx \frac{\tau}{t}$
 21. The method of claim 18, wherein transforming each time shift gather into the velocity gather includes interpolating between the migration time-shift parameter, τ, and the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t).
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks on the velocity gather.
 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising updating the propagation velocity, using the selected energy maxima.
 24. The method of claim 18, wherein transforming each time shift gather into the velocity gather includes interpolating between the migration time-shift parameter, τ, and the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t), plus the estimate of the root-mean-square propagation velocity.
 25. The method of claim 24, further comprising selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks on the velocity gather.
 26. The method of claim 25, further comprising updating the propagation velocity, using the selected energy maxima.
 27. The method of claim 25, wherein selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks is performed by a computer.
 28. A computer-readable medium storing program instructions that cause a computer to perform steps, comprising: inputting an estimate of the propagation velocity; generating a time shift gather using a depth migration at a plurality of locations of the earth; converting each of the time shift gathers to a semblance gather; transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather whose energy peaks represent a root-mean-square average of the propagation velocity along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and a point of the subsurface geology; converting the energy peaks to the propagation velocity; and storing the propagation velocity.
 29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein converting each of the time shift gathers to a semblance gather includes: (a) computing an amplitude squared time shift gather, and (b) counting the shot images contributing to each time shift gather.
 30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the step of transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather includes associating a migration time-shift parameter, τ, with a residual travel time from the depth migration using the estimate of the propagation velocity.
 31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to a root-mean-square velocity correction along the forward and backward path between earth's surface and the point of the subsurface geology, v(t).
 32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction by the following formula: $\frac{\tau}{t} = {{- 1} + \sqrt{1 + \frac{2\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{2\; {v(t)}}} \right)}{\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)^{2}}}}$
 33. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction by the following formula: $\frac{\tau}{t} \approx {\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}\left( {1 + \frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)}} \right)}$
 34. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the migration time-shift parameter, τ, on the semblance gather relates to the root-mean-square velocity correction by the following formula: $\frac{\Delta \; {v(t)}}{v(t)} \approx \frac{\tau}{t}$
 35. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather includes interpolating between the migration time-shift parameter, τ, and the root-mean-square velocity correction, v(t).
 36. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, further comprising selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks on the velocity gather.
 37. The computer-readable medium of claim 36, further comprising updating the propagation velocity, using the selected energy maxima.
 38. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein transforming each semblance gather into a velocity gather includes interpolating between the migration time-shift parameter, τ, and the velocity correction, v(t), plus the estimate of the propagation velocity.
 39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38, further comprising selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks on the velocity gather.
 40. The computer-readable medium of claim 39, further comprising updating the propagation velocity, using the selected energy maxima.
 41. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein selecting the maxima of each of the energy peaks is performed by a computer. 